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Until we meet again...

Every summer I leave our AMAZING teaching kitchen in DC to pass time at our 1965 beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I cross my fingers and hold my breath that the original GE four burner stove top and oven works. And... every summer it does.

I LOVE our 45 year old General Electric stove. Although a challenge to cook on... it turns out our favorites... summer after summer after summer like... Gus's Fried Chicken, The New Basics Paella and Peach and Blueberry Rustic Tart.

With a caravan of four cars filled with high-school boys, we left the comfort of our cushy Cathedral Ave kitchen early this morning to discover where our food really comes from. Our adventures took us all out of DC and across the Maryland border to Needmore, Pennsylvania to visit Licking Creek Bend Farm. (For those interested: Licking Creek Farm contributes to the Silver Spring and Takoma Park Co-ops and also sells at the Adams Morgan Farmer's Market starting next Saturday).

Our senior boys worked to till the soil around potatoes, clean scallions and plant Christmas trees. It was a enlightening experience to see the GREAT amount of work that goes into producing food without chemicals. The boys were all very tired!

After a hard day's work, we were very hungry for lunch so we ate our homemade roast beef sandwiches. We had roasted our own beef bottom-roast to medium-rare with our Landon boys on Tuesday morning which we covered in clarified butter and seasonings. When we told the boys we were packing roast beef sandwiches to bring, they asked where we were getting them from. Much to their surprise, we were not going to the deli to buy their sandwiches, we were making our own roast beef.

The consensus: Just simply...delicious.

After we cleaned up from our breakfast feast, we welcomed our new cooking class of senior boys from Maret. We began the class by making Chicken Parm, but instead of Parmesan cheese we substituted Pecorino cheese. Pecorino cheese is a salty cheese made from sheep (pecora is the Italian word for sheep).

To accompany our Chicken Pecorino, we made oven-baked macaroni and cheese with a mix of Irish, New York and Wisconsin cheddar cheeses. Many of the boys in our class had never had REAL, Homemade mac n' cheese before and unfortunately only knew the boxed macaroni and cheese. If you are going to get boxed mac n' cheese, PLEASE do yourself a favor and buy Annie's. It is made with REAL ingredients, no chemicals.

To start our Mac n' Cheese we made a Roux which we then added the cheese too. A roux is the basis for many classic sauces like Bechamel.

Make your own roux at home!

1 tbsp. melted butter
1 tbsp. flour
1/4 cup whole milk

Melt the butter. Take it off the heat and whisk in the flour.
Add the milk, return to the heat and whisk until it is thick.

To roux we added a little white pepper and dried mustard. Nutmeg would work well also. Don't be afraid to experiment and enjoy!

Today's Catch...

Virgil's Fish Cleaning House

Wild Red Snapper Ready to Grill...